How Sarah Burton is returning to the heart of Alexander McQueen with traditional techniques

If COVID-19 has taught us anything about fashion, it's the need to slow down. Learning to live with less has shown the world we really, really don't need more. Lockdown has made us thrifty, crafty even. Moth-eaten jumpers are finally on the mend, jeans are being re-purposed and socks tie-dyed. Some have even traded in flash sales for hand-knitting scarves (a tactical garment in these times) with their quarantined family. And Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen's Creative Director, is taking these ideas of artistry, community and a return to traditional techniques one step further, with the painstaking process of Beetling.

Credit: Courtesy of Alexander McQueen

This process is at the heart of Alexander McQueen's SS20 collection, which opened with an articulated white puff-sleeve dress fabricated from moonlit hand-beetled linen straight from the oldest, and last remaining specialist mill in Ireland: William Clark. An extremely elaborate and time-consuming process, the garment beetling for the Alexander McQueen SS20 collection entailed the making and unmaking of clothing in the McQueen studio which was then sent off in pieces to the mill where it was hand-painted with potato starch and hammered by wooden blocks before being remade in the studio a final time. The decision to employ this technique harks back to what lies at the heart of Alexander McQueen: a respect for traditional technique.

Credit: Courtesy of Alexander McQueen

"The connection between the clothes was the time it took to make them," commented Sarah Burton. "I was interested in clarity and paring things down to the essence of garments – stripping back to the toile. I love the idea of people having time to make things together, to meet and talk together, to reconnect with the world."

Other iterations included a trompe l’oeil layered jacket and peg trousers seductively pressed with a midnight sheen, a hand-painted pin-tuck dress and a deconstructed jacket with exploded sleeves. If slow fashion looks this good, why bother rushing?